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Author's Note: It took me so long to update this time, honestly, because of lack of interest—on my part and concerning reviews. With school started this fic fell way back onto the backburner. Sorry—lol.
But I couldn't give this fic up! It's way too much fun to write to just drop, so I'm going to try and continue with it. I'd like to thank those who did R&R last time!
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Link
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It was truly the calm before the storm.
But not in it's usual, natural sense. We were not to experience the weather of that afternoon, but the elements of yesterday and the days, months, and, yes, years before that. Just beyond the ship, unimagined forces were at work, imperceptible at first, then finally awesome The blue sky stretched endless overhead and the midday hour never lasted so long, though according to Niko's watch and the shifting shadows, it past by twenty minutes quicker than usual.
Tetra's convictions had yet to be proven. The grinding halt of time had brought a silence we mistook as a dead breeze and an absence of crackling sails. Those vast canvases had been secured on the Captain's orders, and the ship looked almost skeletal without them. She paced the deck, only her footfalls breaking the quiet, eyes like a tiger, searching for any tangible evidence to prove her right and the rest of us wrong.
Aryll and I were watching the Captain from the corner, pretending to be occupied in a game of chess, scarcely watching where we slid our pieces. We took turns stealing sidelong glances at Tetra, missing chances at checkmates, all the while attempting to assess her state of mind.
"Hey, you see that?" Aryll muttered, squinting out at the ocean.
"No…what?"
She squinted harder, twisting her face. "Can I see my telescope."
"Your telescope?" After ten years, you'd think Aryll would have relinquished ownership. It's not that I had intended on keeping it, I just never got around to returning it.
Aryll shot me a dark look. "Yes, my telescope. Can I see it?"
Reluctantly, I drew the old telescope out of my bag and tossed it over.
"Thank-you," she said, not meaning it. Aryll scanned the horizon. "I knew it! It's Beedle…way out there. Here, look." Aryll handed the telescope back over.
I extended it with a swift snap and found myself focusing in on a rickety sampan, hazy in the distance. No mistaking it—it was Beedle, the bait salesman who sailed from one end of the sea hocking junk to the other.
"He's going pretty fast," said Aryll.
I frowned. I could scarcely believe what I was seeing. "He's going backwards! Holy—"
Tetra's sharp whistle cut off any further exclamations of mine. The crew left their positions in a scurry and gathered 'round on her orders. Aryll jumped to see what all the fuss was over, while I lagged behind, skeptical, with my hands drove into my trouser pockets.
I peered over Mako's head and saw Tetra and Gonzo squatting next to a barrel.
"Tell me, what exactly would you call this?" Tetra had her finger pointed at the dark sliver of deck next to the barrel.
Gonzo appeared puzzled. "Uhh…I would call it a shadow, Miss."
If Tetra heard the muffled guffaws of the crewmembers, it, strangely, didn't bother her. She rose and straightened, replying, "I would call proof." She smiled her smug, superior smile. "Firstly, Niko, the time?"
"12:40, Miss."
Still smiling, she arched a brow and glanced up at the sun. "Awful low in the sky for twenty to one—I would say it looks more like one o'clock exactly…which, brings me to my reason for gathering you all here." She raised her voice, and continued crisply, " Gonzo! You've been endowed with an innate sense of direction! Tell me, which way is East."
Gonzo was the ship's human compass. He had guided the ship back on course innumerous times, proving himself more reliable and even more accurate than any magnetic compass. I had never heard tell of him erring in his guidance.
He immediately pointed off the starboard side of the ship. " Tha' way, Miss."
"Sure?"
Ohh—did I ever hate that smile of hers!
"Positive, Miss!"
"Wrong," Tetra said simply, causing gasps of disbelief throughout the small crowd. Gonzo looked partly angered, partly bewildered at Tetra's contradiction. "And I'll tell you why. If that is indeed East, and it is indeed 12:40, why would the sun be heading in that direction? The sun sets in the West. The shadows are lengthening westward, if that is any more proof as to direction of the sun's eastward descent—and at an alarming rate, wouldn't you say?"
It was true! The shadow had grown half a foot while our attention had been drawn by Tetra's short speech. I recalled Beedle's sampan racing by, stern-first. The only explanation was…
Tetra said it before I dared think it.
"Now, I'd hate to doubt your historically astounding navigational abilities, Gonzo, but if you are correct, the only other explanation that comes to mind is that the ocarina is, perhaps, working."
The crew didn't have time to exchange murmurs of doubt, for the shadows of the ship were lengthening before our very eyes across the deck. As the afternoon sun sank towards the morning horizon, I could see Tetra's smile broaden and feel my stomach clench. When the sun set in the East many hours too soon she had the crew won over. Her success never looked so pretty; the sky was on fire.
Night fell, but we didn't even half the lanterns lit when the sun reappeared, glorious, on the wrong horizon. Clouds grew and shrank in minutes and I felt rain fall for about a heartbeat.
Nighttime again. Daylight in seconds.
Days and nights were rewinding so fast now that it was dizzying and the sky overhead became a flickering indigo. The moon waxed and waned again and again, leaping across the sky. The starry map of the heavens rotated as the seasons passed in reverse. And then, even the stars themselves, things I was certain remained forever constant, changed. Some appeared out of nothing and others faded back into the blackness of space. The constellation "Kipper" was rearranged and Nayru's pitcher of water vanished from her celestial hands.
But it was the arrangement of stars "Evren" that caught my wonder. "Evren" meant courage in Ancient Hylian and supposedly represented the Hero of Time. Many times had Tetra pointed out where the head was supposed to be and where the sword began, but I could never make heads or tales of it. It took more imagination that I had to discern a hero out of twelve points of light. But now, before my very eyes, stars brightened out of the cosmic abyss and formed the obvious outline of a proud, noble hero.
"Link!" Aryll's voice shook me out of my reverie. She pointed and I looked.
Thick, silvery mists were rising up from the ocean, engulfing the ship until we were drifting on fog instead of sea. The legendary downpour that drowned Hyrule reversed and the Great Sea evaporated back into the clouds. I'm not exactly sure when the ocean below us vanished entirely, but I felt its absence greatly. The smell of salt left the air and the sensation of floating on air made me squeamish. Time was slowing down now, halting gradually its extraordinary reverse.
It was when the clouds broke and vanished below us that I knew we were in trouble.
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I think this is my first cliffhanger. Tee-Hee!
Please Review!Thanks for your time!
--F. J. Stellar